


The Fanfiction Fanfiction

by Valeada



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fanfiction Authors, Alternate Universe - Human, Fanfiction, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-01
Updated: 2014-05-01
Packaged: 2018-01-21 13:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1552616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valeada/pseuds/Valeada
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Gabriel are popular fanfiction authors for Chuck Shurley's book series about a pair of actors, Jensen and Jared and both write the same pairing, Richard x Jared. Unsurprisingly they absolutely cannot stand each others' writing and constantly compete with each other, even though they're currently writing a collaborative piece for a to be published fanfiction anthology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fanfiction Fanfiction

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr: Gabrielsfeatherybutt.tumblr.com

When it came to the world of fanfiction for Chuck Shurley's “Supernatural” book series about a pair of actors, Jensen and Jared, working on a TV show when the monsters on their show came to life there were a plethora of fanfiction writers. The fandom itself wasn't huge, but with over 1 million (and counting) fanfics that was an easy fact to overlook. The shippers were ravenous. And some of the most raved about writers were LawfulGiant and Trickster-ErThanYou. They both wrote the same pairing (Jared x Richard), a semi-popular pairing in the fandom due largely to the popularity of their fics. But that did not in any way mean that they were friends. They disagreed on pretty much everything, from who topped to how the dynamics between them would work, even down to little characterization elements. It practically became a contest between the two of them. Trickster-ErThanYou would post a drabble where Richard made nothing but dick jokes the entire time, and a day later LawfulGiant would post a 5,000 word fic where Richard spent 75% of his time taking about how dick jokes were stupid and a lazy excuse for humour.

So when Chuck's publisher Becky Rosen made an announcement on Chuck's official website announcing that they were creating and publishing an official compilation of fanfiction in order to “Recognize the works of some of the incredibly talented writers our fandom has to offer!” There would be one fanfiction for each of the popular pairings, and the author of each fic would be decided by an online poll.

There was little surprise when LawfulGiant and Trickster-ErThanYou were tied for the most votes.

What was surprising that instead of simply picking one of them, Becky insisted the pair of them collaborate.

There was a series of angry skype calls between the three of them where Trickster-ErThanYou (whose name turned out to be Gabriel) and LawfulGiant (whose name turned out to be Sam) refused point blank to work with each other, insisting that the other was (in Sam's words) impossible to work with, pointing out their different writing styles and characterization, or calling the other (in Gabriel's words) a no-talent dirt bag who couldn't appreciate a good metaphor if it fucked him up the ass.

But Becky would have none of it, and insisted that they either work together or one of them needed to drop out. But neither one was willing to leave the other to represent the pairing, so together it was.

As it turned out they only lived about an hour away from each other, but neither one would agree to do the driving, so they worked entirely over skype and google docs, which allowed them to piss the hell out of each other with real-time edits showing up on the file. Sam would type a sentence, only to see the flashing blue cursor that represented Gabriel completely erase what he had written and replace it with work of his own.

The longer they worked together the more apparent their differences became. Sam went to bed no later than midnight, while Gabriel stayed up until two at lest, and Sam woke up by seven and it was a miracle if Gabriel was out of bed before noon. Sam preferred to write at his kitchen table, while Gabriel would go out to coffee shops or public remarks and make not so subtle comments to Sam over skype about the people around him.

Their writing was different too. Gabriel's was flowery and honest and poetic, he could write beautiful dialogue that could go on for hours and never seem forced or break character. Sam, on the other hand, was more of a realist. His writing was to the point and blunt, but his characters were always so human and his plots were so perfectly realistic and believable that you could almost imagine them happening, immersing the reader a little further in their story when they could be rid of their suspension of disbelief.

So they bitched about each other on their blogs, but the fics that LawfulGiant published on the side suddenly had better dialogue than before and his descriptions became more immersive, and Trickster-ErThanYou uploaded a WIP that for once didn't ignore all known laws of physics.

Three weeks before the publishing deadline the fanfiction was only halfway done. They couldn't agree on anything. Jared and Richard still hadn't even gotten together yet and they had already dismissed all ideas of a smutty scene. They'd both written smut before, but writing one together just felt awkward, aside from he fact that they couldn't agree on anything about how smut between the two characters would work. (Sam thought it would be Jared, but Gabriel _insisted_ that it would be Richard.) But the dynamic between the two of them got worse and worse. They argued over the simplest things, down to the colours of the curtains. (“But it's a _metaphor_ , Sammy! The curtains are blue because his ex-girlfriend's eyes were blue, and it represents how he thinks she's still watching over him!” “Don't call me Sammy, and they can't be blue because they would clash with the orange sofa!”) And as soon as one of them got too irritated to continue they would just log off.

It was becoming clear that they would never get it done in time if they didn't get together in person. (“Because then I can stop you from just running away when you get pissed off.” “Wow, kinky Sammy.” “Son'g call me Sammy, and you know that's not what I meant!”) As luck would have it Sam had a baby shower to go to that weekend fifteen minutes from where Gabriel lived, so he could combine it with a visit to finish the damn story. (Gabriel was immensely smug about the fact that Sam was the one commuting and not him.)

So when Sam showed up outside Gabriel's door on Friday night, his laptop tucked under one arm and his bag left in the car the first words out of his mouth weren't exactly the smartest ones he had ever said.

“You're short.” Sam said bluntly, barely containing a smug smirk.

“I'm not short, you're just gigantic.” Gabriel huffed. “Don't insult your host or I'm not letting you inside.”

“Do you prefer the term “miniature” then?” Sam asked, mouth curling up into a proper smirk.

“Hey, it's not the size that counts, it's how you use it.” Gabriel winked, and Sam wasn't entirely sure why he was suddenly blushing.

“Is everything an innuendo with you?” He sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Only for you, Sammikins.” Gabriel laughed, stepping aside so that Sam could enter his house.

“It's Sam!” He huffed, brushing past him. “Come on, let's just get writing.”

And write they did. They got more done together than they ever had on their own, bouncing ideas off of each other so quickly anyone else would have gotten dizzy. Bit when they weren't biting each others' heads off they actually worked pretty well together. Really well, in face. They were done the fanfiction by the end of the night.

Gabriel broke out a bottle of wine. They sat together on his couch, chatting amiably with each other. Sam learnt that Gabriel loved to bake, had a dog, and told bad jokes when he was nervous. And Gabriel in turn learnt that Sam had tried to be a lawyer but quit when the politics all got to be a bit too much, had always wanted a dog, and had a secret thing for 80's movies.

It would be difficult to say who moved first, but before they knew it they were making out on Gabriel's couch, fingers tangling in hair as they wrote stories on each others' skin with their fingertips.

Sam didn't make it to the baby shower.

Even months later, after Gabriel's bitching about the constant drive got to be too much and Sam moved in with him they still couldn't quite agree whether Jared or Richard topped, although they were both able to make much more compelling arguments based on new found evidence.


End file.
